Integration of Information and Communication in the classroom has been transforming the way learners are learning today. Teachers in India are also experimenting with innovative ways to teach with the help of ICT tools. They are leveraging various digital platforms for planning their lessons, delivering them in the classroom setup or virtually, and conducting the assessment as well. Educational technology is offering effective ways to reach different types of learners and assess their understanding in more than one way. Teachers' well-equipped preparation with ICT tools and facilities is one of the main factors in the success of technology-based teaching and learning. The Indian government has been persistent in implementing policies to encourage technology-driven innovations in the education sector and encouraging educators to adopt and integrate ICT. Although the perception of Indian teachers towards the use of ICT is positive, still need more support with the infrastructure and training especially in the rural regions. This paper will cover how technology has impacted the teaching practices, perceptions of teachers about the use of technology in the classroom, and their professional development.
In India, various ICT tools and platforms are providing an opportunity for educators to share and optimize resources among each other and helping to learn. The government has launched various initiatives like 'Digital India' campaign to take advantage of the larger scale penetration of the Internet to reach every corner of the country. DIKSHA platform is a part of one such initiative by the MHRD, envisioned as One - Nation - One digital platform serving as a digital platform for the teachers. The platform aims to create a repository of resources for educators and build a strong community. From its inception, DIKSHA has evolved and updated with various features and tools to make the platform more efficient. The document will guide the users to navigate through the platform and understand the prerequisites for the implementation of the DIKSHA platform in schools. The document will be useful for a diverse set of stakeholders, including teachers, school heads, administrators, parents, and students, for smooth implementation of DIKSHA platform.
COVID-19 Pandemic has caused many abrupt and profound changes in the Education Sector around the world. Due to the school closures, India has also witnessed a large number of students suffering from huge learning gaps. With the current priority of reopening the schools and bringing the students back to the classrooms in a safe manner, blended learning is seen as a fundamental part of the future of education. Blended learning is a way of learning combining traditional and modern learning models, with the help of digital learning platforms and tools. The power of blended learning methods lies in their ability to improve the learning experience for both the teachers and the students. Despite various efforts by the government and independent organizations, making learning possible for all learners has been a challenging journey. It has contributed to the increase in resourcefulness, dedication, and creativity for many teachers, families, and students who are collaboratively building remarkable learning experiences during the school closures. Also, it has disclosed many weaknesses and vulnerabilities of the system in making the dream of digital India possible. With the utmost priority to bring back children safely to the schools, various studies see technology playing a crucial part in the process. This allows the scope of providing more opportunities for collaboration, increased access to learning, advanced systems for tracking learning levels, and preparing learners for a tech-oriented future. A blended mode of learning is seen as a balanced way out to bring our children safely to the schools and optimize ICT tools and platforms to accelerate the learning process. Open educational resources must be prioritized, public education cannot be dependent on digital platforms provided by private companies[1]. This will require all the stakeholders on the national level, state level, civil societies, teachers, students, and parents all collectively mobilizing these efforts. Thus, making it important to ensure that any digital transition is not just an effort pushed by technology companies but the teachers, students, governments, civil society representatives and privacy advocates are also represented and shape these transformations.
India being the second-highest producer of smartphones in the world, has been exploring ways to make the digital tool reach everyone. With the availability of a variety of low-cost smartphones and affordable internet data plans, the country has witnessed a substantial increase in the ownership of smartphones. This penetration has not been limited to the urban peripherals of the country but the rural areas as well. India's rural internet user base has grown over three times faster and is quickly catching up to surpass the urban user base. The opportunity must be utilized well by the government, as the growth and familiarity of rural India with smartphones make it an ideal platform to deliver information and services that encompass the ecosystem of the digital divide. Smartphones in the field of education have already been widely disseminated, with enormous potential for future growth. Low-cost smartphones with the features like high speed, affordable internet, pre-installed applications, and audio-assistant features, can prove revolutionary in the transformational journey. The digital tool is foreseen to bring the latest ed-tech advancements in the education sector, especially in rural India. Smartphones hold the potential to support the Anganwadi workers, teachers, and school nutrition program, by introducing new and effective ways of functioning. This will play a big role in supporting early education, primary & secondary education, and teachers' continuous development, especially at the grass-root level. This paper explores how smartphones have been and can further support the public school system in the country
India being the second-highest producer of smartphones in the world, has been exploring ways to make the digital tool reach everyone. With the availability of a variety of low-cost smartphones and affordable internet data plans, the country has witnessed a substantial increase in the ownership of smartphones. This penetration has not been limited to the urban peripherals of the country but the rural areas as well. India's rural internet user base has grown over three times faster and is quickly catching up to surpass the urban user base. The opportunity must be utilized well by the government, as the growth and familiarity of rural India with smartphones make it an ideal platform to deliver information and services that encompass the ecosystem of the digital divide. Smartphones in the field of education have already been widely disseminated, with enormous potential for future growth. Low-cost smartphones with the features like high speed, affordable internet, pre-installed applications, and audio-assistant features, can prove revolutionary in the transformational journey. The digital tool is foreseen to bring the latest ed-tech advancements in the education sector, especially in rural India. Smartphones hold the potential to support the Anganwadi workers, teachers, and school nutrition program, by introducing new and effective ways of functioning. This will play a big role in supporting early education, primary & secondary education, and teachers' continuous development, especially at the grass-root level. This paper explores how smartphones have been and can further support the public school system in the country.
India has successfully achieved quantity benchmarks for education by making schooling accessible to all and making rapid strides in improving attendance. Next, India must improve the quality of its educational system, which is limited by large class sizes, limited teacher expertise, poor access to resources, and teacher absenteeism. ICT provides tools to address all these challenges. Historically, ICT has been used to improve educational coverage. Educational radio programs have been produced since 1972, and corporate initiatives have introduced computers to classrooms since the 1990s. Most radically, India even launched a satellite to broadcast educational content to remote schools off the grid. Yet the digital revolution provides the greatest opportunity for ICT to contribute to improved education and equality of opportunity across India. ICT has been applied to improve education in several ways. Teachers can gain access to improved lesson plans and teaching resources that incorporate multimedia and best pedagogical practices. Similarly, these platforms are used to deliver interactive teacher training that uses data to analyze teachers' strengths and weaknesses. Data can also be used to break down and isolate challenges for students or entire classrooms. Finally, communication tools embedded in these platforms provide teachers, students and parents with a more collaborative classroom experience. The MHRD's DIKSHA platform, powered by EkStep, is currently the most comprehensive and widespread societal platform in use. Integrating ICT into all aspects of education, DIKSHA incorporates quality user-developed content, student assessment tools, data collection and analysis, teacher professional development, and parent-teacher-student communication into a multilingual package now being implemented in several states. Additional general-purpose platforms include Karnataka's Meghshala, Gujarat's Learning Delight, and the Central Board for Secondary Education's Saransh. More specialized platforms also exist to fulfill specific needs, such as StoryWeaver, an initiative to develop mother tongue literacy material. EkStep and DIKSHA provide functionality to incorporate other platforms as specialized modules within their own system, a powerful integrative feature with the potential to consolidate the many different platforms in existence under one roof without sacrificing local adaptability or flexibility. Education policymakers should continue encouraging the consolidation of redundant platforms. While teachers often use ICT resources such as Youtube in the classroom, these freelance solutions do not provide the opportunities for beneficial synergies inherent in a platform. Additionally, implementers and end-users of education platforms should be more fully trained in the capabilities of these tools, with continuing support provided to increase familiarity and comfort level. Significant infrastructure investment is required to provide electricity to many schools, let alone digital connectivity, and opportunities exist for involving India's major industries in content production. Finally, the definition of a digital school must be clarified to incentivize and prioritize investments in ICT integration.
With the ongoing dramatic drop in prices for smartphones in India and the broader developing world, new frontiers are opening up for the incorporation of mobile technology into public service delivery. Mobile services in the fields of education and health have already been widely disseminated, with enormous potential for future growth. Such platforms both improve the quality of the user experience and provide data which can vastly improve the public decision-making process. The expansion of public services into the realm of mobile technology will only be accelerated if governments synchronize the deployment of capable mobile platforms with investments in the digital infrastructure needed to support them. However, while this path presents great promise, it also risks deepening the digital divide. Implementing mobile-based public service delivery presents a number of roadblocks such as India's relatively low rate of smartphone ownership, broadband infrastructure limitations, and overcoming the legacy of pre-digital institutions. These will need to be addressed in order to facilitate a smooth and inclusive transition towards applying these powerful technologies, but a successful outcome would mean a profound transformation of the Indian economy.
With the ongoing dramatic drop in prices for smartphones in India and the broader developing world, new frontiers are opening up for the incorporation of mobile technology into public service delivery. Mobile services in the fields of education and health have already been widely disseminated, with enormous potential for future growth. Such platforms both improve the quality of the user experience and provide data which can vastly improve the public decision-making process. The expansion of public services into the realm of mobile technology will only be accelerated if governments synchronize the deployment of capable mobile platforms with investments in the digital infrastructure needed to support them. However, while this path presents great promise, it also risks deepening the digital divide. Implementing mobile-based public service delivery presents a number of roadblocks such as India's relatively low rate of smartphone ownership, broadband infrastructure limitations, and overcoming the legacy of pre-digital institutions. These will need to be addressed in order to facilitate a smooth and inclusive transition towards applying these powerful technologies, but a successful outcome would mean a profound transformation of the Indian economy.
As reforms have paved the way for India's rapid economic expansion in recent years, particularly in the service sector, Information and Communications Technology (ICT) has assumed a dominant role as the underwriter of India's growth. Outside of the commercial applications where ICT has been most extensively applied so far, ICT also holds great potential to drive human development, narrowing gaps between the rich and the poor as well as rural and urban areas. In many development-adjacent sectors, particularly education, agriculture, and health, platforms and initiatives have already demonstrated ICT's promise as a transformational suite of technologies which democratize information and dramatically reduce transaction costs. However, even greater progress is possible if initiatives apply an intersectoral approach which applies best practices from other sectors, highlights synergies between sectors, and identifies pitfalls stemming from hidden competition of priorities between sectors that could otherwise derail a project. Intersectoral analysis also recognizes how advances in the sectors under study contribute to growth in the broader economy. By applying an intersectoral lens, individual programs can be strengthened, new opportunities can be identified, and ICT can be more thoroughly woven into a tapestry that benefits all aspects of people's lives. ICT-driven development has not entirely ignored intersectorality, but opportunities abound for improving these initiatives by applying a more holistic lens. In particular, the field of nutrition is most sorely in need of mainstreaming within the many different siloed development objectives that touch upon it. Data, the foundation of ICT, provides great opportunities for refining programs of all types, but also carries great risks to privacy and potentially social equality. And untapped synergies exist between the cutting-edge advances in the Education sector and educational initiatives in other sectors which have not benefited from the same intentional pedagogical design.
As reforms have paved the way for India's rapid economic expansion in recent years, particularly in the service sector, Information and Communications Technology (ICT) has assumed a dominant role as the underwriter of India's growth. Outside of the commercial applications where ICT has been most extensively applied so far, ICT also holds great potential to drive human development, narrowing gaps between the rich and the poor as well as rural and urban areas. In many development-adjacent sectors, particularly education, agriculture, and health, platforms and initiatives have already demonstrated ICT's promise as a transformational suite of technologies which democratize information and dramatically reduce transaction costs. However, even greater progress is possible if initiatives apply an intersectoral approach which applies best practices from other sectors, highlights synergies between sectors, and identifies pitfalls stemming from hidden competition of priorities between sectors that could otherwise derail a project. Intersectoral analysis also recognizes how advances in the sectors under study contribute to growth in the broader economy. By applying an intersectoral lens, individual programs can be strengthened, new opportunities can be identified, and ICT can be more thoroughly woven into a tapestry that benefits all aspects of people's lives. ICT-driven development has not entirely ignored intersectorality, but opportunities abound for improving these initiatives by applying a more holistic lens. In particular, the field of nutrition is most sorely in need of mainstreaming within the many different siloed development objectives that touch upon it. Data, the foundation of ICT, provides great opportunities for refining programs of all types, but also carries great risks to privacy and potentially social equality. And untapped synergies exist between the cutting-edge advances in the Education sector and educational initiatives in other sectors which have not benefited from the same intentional pedagogical design.
It is a well-known fact that women are an integral part of the society, constituting about half of the total population of the world. The all-round development and harmonious growth of a nation would be possible only when women are given their desired place and position in the society and are treated as equal partners of progress with men. Present work was carried out to know the extent of empowerment due to SHG membership of rural women. Descriptive Research Design was adopted to carry out the research. Multistage purposive random sampling was followed for selection of state, districts, blocks, villages, SHGs and finally the respondents. In majority about forty-three percent respondents were belonging to 35 to 45 years of age, educated up to high school and are also belonging to OBC category, with the earning Rs. 14,000-16,000 annually from SHGs. Maximum respondents were belonging to joint family and having a pucca house. About forty-seven percent respondents were engaged in dairy farming, whereas 71.25 percent respondents were agreed that they have joined SHG to improve financial conditions of their family, whereas about eighty-one percent respondents were agreed that they have joined SHG to avail benefits of developmental programs of the government. Maximum (65.83%) respondents were agreed on SHG formation for added strength to raise their voice while 62.9 percent respondents were agreed on internal loaning under SHGs which gives freedom of spending to women. Total three-fourth respondents were agreed on bookkeeping which helps them in learning the importance of planned economic activity, whereas in majority 68.75 per cent respondents were agreed on SHGs for preparing women to take up more responsibilities in community action program. A little less than eighty percent respondents were in agreement that entrepreneurial activities in SHGs increases their self-confidence and risk bearing capacity and all most cent percent respondents were agreed that entrepreneurial activities under SHGs have increased their desire to learn more professional. It is a well-known fact that women are an integral part of the society, constituting about half of the total population of the world. The all-round development and harmonious growth of a nation would be possible only when women are given their desired place and position in the society and are treated as equal partners of progress with men. Present work was carried out to know the extent of empowerment due to SHG membership of rural women. Descriptive Research Design was adopted to carry out the research. Multistage purposive random sampling was followed for selection of state, districts, blocks, villages, SHGs and finally the respondents. In majority about forty-three percent respondents were belonging to 35 to 45 years of age, educated up to high school and are also belonging to OBC category, with the earning Rs. 14,000 – 16,000 annually from SHGs. Maximum respondents were belonging to joint family and having a pucca house. About forty-seven per cent respondents were engaged in dairy farming, whereas 71.25 percent respondents were agreed that they have joined SHG to improve financial conditions of their family, whereas about eighty-one per cent respondents were agreed that they have joined SHG to avail benefits of developmental programs of the government. Maximum (65.83%) respondents were agreed on SHG formation for added strength to raise their voice, while 62.9 per cent respondents were agreed on internal loaning under SHGs which gives freedom of spending to women. Total three-fourth respondents were agreed on bookkeeping which helps them in learning the importance of planned economic activity, whereas in majority 68.75 per cent respondents were agreed on SHGs for preparing women to take up more responsibilities in community action program. A little less than eighty per cent respondents were in agreement that entrepreneurial activities in SHGs increases their self-confidence and risk bearing capacity and all most cent percent respondents were agreed that entrepreneurial activities under SHGs have increased their desire to learn more professional skills
